NOTE: Since my Brief Look at Fasting will take more time to prepare I will continue to work on it and present it when I feel it will glorify God the most. Please pardon the delay.
rlkeller
Bread of Life Ministries
Monday, February 17, 2020
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Word for the Day
Starting this coming Monday we take a brief look at biblical fasting.
You won't want to miss it.
rlkeller
BOM
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
A Brief Look at the Prophet Malachi
“The Day of Judgment is coming, burning like a furnace…but for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.” – Malachi 4:1-2 NLT
Malachi was the last written prophet and the final prophet before the 400-year gap till the coming of the Messiah. His name means “my messenger”. This book was written in roughly 430 BC.
Repairing relationships between 2 or more created beings can be difficult but repairing a relationship with God is infinitely easier because of his mercy, grace and unconditional love. As you have seen throughout this series of devotionals on the Minor Prophets, the Jewish people have had a rollercoaster existence with their God. Warnings regarding their disobedience seemed to be continual. Sometimes they repented, other times they didn’t listen and suffered the loving judgment from a Heavenly Father that sought their undying devotion. This book is yet another warning to the people of Jerusalem, capital of Judah, regarding their sins and broken relationship with God.
Malachi’s words reminded the Jews of their willful disobedience. In other words, they knew what to do, yet did the opposite anyway. Their broken relationship with their God was due to the following sins: 1- Showing contempt for God’s name (Mal 1:6); offering defiled sacrifices (Mal 1:7-14); led others into sin (Mal 2:7-9); broke God’s laws (Mal 2:11-16); called evil ‘good’ (Mal 2:17); kept God’s tithes and offerings for themselves (Mal 3:8-9); and had become arrogant. With God nothing is beyond repair. Grace is undeserved favor. God chooses to administer grace and mercy because he knows his creature came from dust and to dust will return.
The Prophet shares a promise from God that tells of the coming of the prophet Elijah, who will offer God’s forgiveness to all people thru repentance and faith (Mal 4:5-6). The prophet Elijah was the greatest prophet who ever lived, yet it was not Elijah raised from the dead, but rather Elijah in the form of John the Baptist who would announce the Messiah’s coming.
In the final (4th) chapter, Malachi gives us all some practical guidelines regarding our commitment to God. He deserves our absolute best each day; we must be willing to change our wrong ways of living; we need to make our family a lifelong priority; we should be sensitive to God’s refining process in our life; we should tithe our income and leave no room in our hearts for pride. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing! rlkeller
Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
A Brief Look at the Prophet Zechariah
“Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey’s colt…. Your king will bring peace to the nations. His realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.” – Zechariah 9:9-10 NLT
The purpose of the Prophet Zechariah’s message was to encourage the people of Judah as they completed the rebuilding of the Holy Temple and give them hope by revealing God’s future plans regarding the coming of their Messiah. The prophet encouraged them to put away all sinfulness and remain pure until their Messiah comes. They were cautioned to avoid hypocrisy, shallowness and sin in general.
Zechariah made sure the people understood that the Messiah was not coming upon the completion of the Temple. As it turned out Messiah wouldn’t come for another 520 years. This is exactly why followers of Christ must have patience. God’s timetable often does not line up with ours, yet he is never late. Knowing the beginning from the end and everything in between is the reason why. While it can be difficult for man to accept that the Lord knows what is best for them at all times, it is a learned trait that must be cultivated. It’s simple really…God knows and we do not.
God was not at all pleased when his people ignored his prophets. Disobedience has always been the Jewish peoples problem back then. It was the root cause of all their misery thru the years. In spite of that, God was merciful and forgave when forgiveness was sought. Just as Jesus told his disciples to forgive others 7 x 70 times (which was symbolic for always forgiving others), God will forgive us an infinite amount of times as long as our heart is sorrowful and we have every intention of turning from our bad behavior. This was encouraging news for those inhabitants of Judah then and it should be encouraging news for us now. Imitate Christ and be free from sin. Recognize your place in his world and follow the Lord daily with a servant’s heart. Until next time, walk with the king and be a blessing! rlkeller
Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.
Monday, February 10, 2020
A Brief Look at the Prophet Haggai
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’ Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: ‘Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?’” – Haggai 1:2-4 NLT
All the Minor Prophets up to this point had been sent by God to issue a warning of impending judgment due to sinful behavior. Haggai was commissioned to give a message to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah and Jeshua, the son of the High Priest to finish what they had started. The backstory is that in 586 BC the people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon and the Babylonian armies completely destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Once Cyrus, king of Persia, had allowed the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem in 520 BC the Lord had told the Jews thru Haggai that they were to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. The people, under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, began the rebuilding process.
Over time the people became more concerned with building beautiful homes for themselves than complete the Lord’s Temple. In addition, they had begun their sinful ways again. God was not pleased with the priorities they had set and had Haggai remind them that God must always be their first priority.
It stands true for us today as well. If the Lord is first in your life he will be with you to lead and guide, to strengthen and encourage. But if you do as you please placing yourself and your own needs as your first priority the Lord will not be with you. To illustrate, having the Lord as your first priority is like walking into a pitch black room with a flashlight. Placing yourself and your own concerns first is like walking into a pitch black room with no light at all to show the way.
The Jews finished the Temple but those who remembered the majesty of Solomon’s Temple, destroyed just 66 years earlier were disappointed with the new Temples inferior appearance. Haggai encouraged the people that the glory of this temple would far surpass that of the one, which preceded it.
The most important element of the new Temple was the presence of the Lord. Is the presence of the Lord real to you? Is he the top priority of your life? He needs to be, for if he is he will be with you and guide you thru this tangled web of a life. Until next time, walk with the king and be a blessing! rlkeller
Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.
A Brief Look at the Prophet Zephaniah
“Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you – protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.” – Zephaniah 2:3 NLT
The prophet Zephaniah was a contemporary of Jeremiah and a predecessor of Habakkuk. Like Habakkuk before him, Zephaniah was sent to Judah to warn them of their sins. In their prosperity they had forsaken the Lord. Even today it is a great temptation to shrug off ones need for God once one is financially set. That is unfortunate, because we need the Lord everyday, all the time to endure this life into eternity. Complacency is a terrible enemy of faith and Zephaniah was warning the people of Judah that if they refused to repent of their sins the entire nation, including the great city of Jerusalem, would be destroyed. Sin, if unchecked, will grow in depth and breadth like a wind blown fire, raging out of control. But know this, those who sin will pay the price for their continued insolent behavior.
Chapter 1, verse 1 thru chapter 3, verse 8 speaks of God’s day of judgment. The final 12 verses of the book (3:9-20) speak of a day of hope. Read the language used to describe the judgment coming against Judah. “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” says the Lord. “I will sweep away people and animals alike. I will sweep away the birds of the sky and the fish in the sea. I will reduce the wicked to heaps of rubble, and I will wipe humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord. It is very clear that God’s anger burns against sin. It is something we must avoid. Our goal isn’t perfection; it’s our attempt at perfection in spite of continued failures.
“A day will come when God, as judge, will severely punish all nations. But after judgment, he will show mercy to all who have been faithful to him. We will all be judged for our disobedience to God; but if we remain faithful to him, he will show us mercy.”* Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing! rlkeller
Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.
* Note from p.1933 in the book of Zephaniah.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)